GOVERNMENTS SILENT, RUSSIAN VOTERS SHOW MIXED PREFERENCES.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 2 Issue: 115

In Turkmenistan, where Russians are allowed to hold dual citizenship, Communist Gennady Zyuganov won 36.8 percent and President Boris Yeltsin 35.1 percent of the votes cast. Turnout was low. In Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Yeltsin garnered 37.3 percent and 34 percent of the Russian votes, respectively, with Zyuganov receiving 22.3 percent in Tajikistan and an unreported score in Kyrgyzstan. But Yeltsin’s success was achieved largely on the strength of the military vote, which makes up most of the Russian vote in both countries and which the commanders delivered to Yeltsin. In Kyrgyzstan, four out of five polling stations were on the premises of Russian border guard units and thus presumably immune to oversight. Tajikistan’s electoral commission announced that most civilian Russian citizens in Tajikistan voted for Zyuganov. In Kazakhstan, on the other hand, Yeltsin won 43.2 percent and Zyuganov 18.8 percent of the vote, with a turnout of some 42 percent out of nearly 10,000 Russian citizens there. In Uzbekistan, Yeltsin won but the turnout of Russian voters was statistically insignificant. The governments of the five Central Asian countries had no immediate comment to offer on Russia’s election. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, June 17)

The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. It is researched and written under the direction of senior analysts Jonas Bernstein, Vladimir Socor, Stephen Foye, and analysts Ilya Malyakin, Oleg Varfolomeyev and Ilias Bogatyrev. If you have any questions regarding the content of the Monitor, please contact the foundation. If you would like information on subscribing to the Monitor, or have any comments, suggestions or questions, please contact us by e-mail at pubs@jamestown.org, by fax at 301-562-8021, or by postal mail at The Jamestown Foundation, 4516 43rd Street NW, Washington DC 20016. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution of the Monitor is strictly prohibited by law. Copyright (c) 1983-2002 The Jamestown Foundation Site Maintenance by Johnny Flash Productions